News that Middletown might house one of the indoor growing facilities wasn’t well received by some businesses or elected officials in the city and Butler County.
“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon. “I would not support any part of it, and I think sometimes I question the sanity of people who can present that, convince people that that’s good for people in our community. It’s not, in any way, shape or form. It’s the beginning of a lot of bad things that could happen.”
State Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp., said he’s a big proponent of economic development throughout the county “but this is not exactly what I had in mind.”
Monday's announcement by ResponsibleOhio comes on the heels of the city of Hamilton's proposal to preemptively ban medical marijuana sales within the city. A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday's City Council meeting to address zoning ordinance changes affecting medical marijuana sales.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said he doesn’t support attempts to legalize medical marijuana sales and will actively “campaign against it.”
“I’m going to be very boisterous,” Jones said. “I have the bully pulpit and I’m going to use it.”
“Other states that have had it … (and are) trying to re-think it,” he said of marijuana legalization. “Why not have medical heroin and medical cocaine? Where does it stop?”
Jones called marijuana a gateway drug that can lead to a more serious addiction.
“We have enough issues, and it’s a slippery slope,” he said. “It’s a little bag of weed and they start smoking that … and where it ends up is my jail being full of people that do this drug.”
Martin Bidwill, president/CEO of Magnode Corporation, said the two parcels in Middletown have been for sale for at least five years. He said Monday was the first time he had heard the land could be used as a possible grow site for medical marijuana.
Bidwill said about a month ago, he was approached by a potential, unidentified buyer via a Columbus realty company. That buyer put a down payment on the property as part of an option agreement where the property was taken off the market for at least six months.
“But we were never told who the buyer is, and we still don’t know to this day,” Bidwill said. He added that as long as the buyer buys the land legally, and should marijuana become legalized in Ohio, he doesn’t think he has a right to judge.
“We’ll just let it play out,” Bidwill said. “I have no right to say anything in regards to a legal status of a company.”
When asked if he would want a legal grow site near his facilities, Bidwill said he wasn’t sure.
“I would have to get more information, such as whether there are increased crime rates in those areas or not,” he said.
Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan said that while a number of people have expressed concern about the legalization of marijuana, “I think we’ve got more work to do on this.”
Mulligan hasn’t spoken with the city administration “on what approach we should take” on the topic.
“I would probably share (the) concerns (of other elected officials), but I’ve also learned that it’s difficult with state law sometimes what our local control may or may not be in these situations,” Mulligan said.
Several companies directly abut the property along Made Industrial Drive, including Granger Plastics Company. President Jim Cravens said one of his major concerns was what legalizing marijuana would do to the already decimated workforce in Middletown.
Granger currently employs about 27 people, and Cravens said they have had trouble finding legitimate candidates over the past two or three years. He said the company has had significant trouble hiring from Middletown itself; most of his employees are from Trenton, Monroe, and other nearby communities.
“I run a drug-free program…and I have a hard enough time hiring as it is, so what happens when marijuana becomes legal and everyone is smoking the stuff,” he said.
Derickson said he’s spoken with many employers over the years, specifically concerning workforce development needs, and many of them have told him it’s hard to find employees that can pass a drug test.
“This effort would certainly not help, I think, our employers find employees that can pass a drug test,” he said.
Other counties that will host grow sites include: Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Lorain, Lucas, Montgomery, Stark and Summit. All told, ResponsibleOhio has locked up access to 344 acres across the state for growing sites.
The Franklin County location is 19.117 acres on Seeds Road near Grove City south of Interstate 71 and north of Zuber Road. The property owner listed in Franklin County auditor records is Kenneth R. Campbell of Mason (in Warren County). Campbell, who also splits his time in Hilton Head, S.C., could not be reached for comment.
Chris Stock of ResponsibleOhio, the campaign to legalize pot, said each grow site will start with a 100,000-square-foot state-of-the-art buildings that would eventually triple in size.
But before the first cannabis seed is planted, ResponsibleOhio must get its ballot summary language approved by Attorney General Mike DeWine and then get the nod from the Ohio Ballot Board that the proposal covers just one issue. Once it clears those hurdles, ResponsibleOhio must collect 305,600 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters by July 1 to make it on the November ballot. The campaign to gather signatures and win over voters is expected to cost $20 million to $25 million. Ohio Rights Group, a group looking to legalize medical marijuana statewide, has been collecting since its approval by the Ohio Ballot Board in 2013; as of February, they have around 150,000 signatures.
If ResponsibleOhio wins at every step of the way, Ohio would become the first state in the country to go directly from a total ban on marijuana to legalizing pot for both medicinal and adult recreational purposes. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia already have some level of legal marijuana.
“We are excited to have the ballot language out there because it gives us all an opportunity to really talk in terms of specifics,” Stock said. The proposal shows that “ResponsibleOhio is working hard to put together a public policy that regulates a multi-billion dollar industry in a responsible way,” he said.
ResponsibleOhio is backed by deep-pocket investors that include financiers, current and former professional athletes, real estate developers and others. It is opposed by anti-drug organizations, five statewide officeholders including Kasich and DeWine, and grassroots marijuana groups that believe carving out just 10 growing sites will unfairly block others who want to cultivate cannabis for sale.
Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., said it’s the prerogative of ResponsibleOhio to seek to place an issue on the ballot, but “it is not anything that the legislature is going to enact.”
“The voters will make their determination on what is best after reviewing the text of the proposed amendment. It’s nothing that I feel legislation is needed for in the state,” Coley said. “I respect the fact that there are those who disagree (with my position) and want to take it the constitutional amendment to the voters.”
Coley said he sees this as similar to the casino amendment, which established four specific sites to permit casinos to be built.
“The voters will have the ultimate say in what they decide they want to do on it,” he said.
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